The ANNALS OF CLEVELAND was a white-collar work relief project sponsored jointly by the CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office, and the HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY relief program of the WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION from 1936 to 1942. The HRS, through the Annals project, utilized unemployed professional and clerical relief workers in a variety of adjunct projects. The initial phase of the project condensed, abstracted, and indexed historic out-of-print news publications for the years 1818-1877, and also produced an indexed reference guide for the PLAIN DEALER for the years 1934 to 1938. The success of the Annals, and the national attention brought to it by WRU Prof. ROBERT C. BINKLEY, led to the approval and sponsorship of unprecedented historic cultural work relief projects. Workers on the Annals project translated and abstracted indexes for Cleveland's contemporary foreign language newspapers for the years 1937 and 1938. This included the press of Cleveland's SLOVAK, RUSSIAN, CARPATHO-RUSSIAN, ROUMANIAN [sic], CZECH, ITALIAN, GERMAN, LITHUANIAN, HUNGARIAN, POLISH, and SLOVENIAN populations. Additionally, the Annals produced a Negro Press Digest and a Digest of Jewish Newspapers. Other projects included an Index to Cleveland Authors, Index to Cleveland Periodicals, guides to historic court and public records at the City and County Archives, as well as surveys of Public Officeholders and Historic Hotels and Taverns. Materials published by the Annals were distributed to public offices, schools, libraries, and historical societies around the county and state, and remain a valuable resource tool for researching Cleveland's democratic culture and history.
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